Unheard songs from the archive of Lindisfarne's Alan Hull set for release on new album

The Alan Hull Songbook: Dave Hull-Denholm and Ian Thomson will be playing never before heard songs written by the late and celebrated Lindisfarne lead singer (Image: Malcolm J Murgatroyd)

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Long lost songs from chief Lindisfarne songwriter, Alan Hull will be performed at a special event in Newcastle on Saturday.

Record Store Day will see Dave Hull-Denholm and Ian Thomson - both members of the current line up of the much-loved North East band - perform some tracks from the upcoming album, Alan Hull Songbook: Some Other Time at Reflex Records on Nun Street, Newcastle.

The 12 tracks for the album were chosen from a field of 120+ demo tapes, which were unearthed when Dave - Alan’s son-in-law - was asked to sort through his home studio.

Taking his time to sort through the quarter inch tapes Dave, who had been playing live with Alan at the time of his death in 1995, and later married his daughter Francesca, and Ian were astonished to discover these weren’t the master tapes or demos for Lindisfarne or Alan’s solo albums, but a whole series of recordings made between 1967 and 1969, which had never seen the light of day.

Songs written, but never performed by the late Lindisfarne lead singer Alan Hull, will get their first live outing at two special Alan Hull Songbook gigs next year

“There’s tons of stuff on there which is actually incredible,” said Dave. “There are some songs on there - like Winter Song - which found their way onto records later on, but loads of them have never been listened to since he recorded them.”

Having made a shortlist of around 36 songs from the 80-or-so on the tapes, Dave and Ian chose six to showcase at a series of gigs they played at the Mining Institute in Newcastle back in February. These formed the basis of the album while the rest were selected during the digitising of the old tapes.

Ian said: “Since we realised the sheer number of unknown songs that are on the demo tapes, we spent a lot of time discussing the best way to bring them to public attention, and because the sound quality wasn’t great, (and the performances were never intended for public consumption anyway) we came to the conclusion that we could and should record them ourselves, and make them accessible to younger listeners as well as the hardcore Lindisfarne fans.”

The Alan Hull Songbook: Some Other Time will be released on May 27, 2016

Dave added: “We think people will be bowled over by these songs. We continually referenced the original demos throughout the recording process and used only instruments and sounds that would have been available to Alan in the late sixties when the songs were written.”

One of the songs which the duo think will get a lot of attention is Clear White Light; not to be confused with Clear White Light Pt.2 from the debut Lindisfarne album Nicely Out Of Tune, which became the traditional encore closer for the band’s concerts.

“This is a completely different song,” said Dave. “‘Part one’, if you like. It’s haunting and melancholy with a truly addictive melody.”

Although it’s set to be “short and sweet”, Dave said they are very much looking forward to performing some of the songs on Record Store Day. They will be followed by The Lake Poets at 3pm.

“We’re really keen to support this event, which is a testament to the dogged tenacity and survival instincts of the independent sector of the music retail industry as a whole. Record shops are places where people meet and talk about music. They’re very sociable places to hang out and always have been.”

Songs from The Alan Hull Songbook: Some Other Time will be performed at Reflex Records on Nun Street, Newcastle at 2pm on Saturday (April 16). The album is available to pre-order at www.alanhullsongbook.com